Course Topics

This is a 3-credit course built around five modules. The course is designed to be taken over a single term.

Module I: Species diversity

Topic 1.1: Species diversity in tropical forests

Topic 1.2: Species richness

Topic 1.3: Special situations

Module II: Ecosystem processes

Topic 2.1: Nutrition and productivity

Topic 2.2: Plant form and function

Topic 2.3: Disturbances in tropical forests

Topic 2.4: Pre-industrial humans in tropical forests

Topic 2.5: Patterns in space and time

Module III: Plant reproduction

Topic 3.1: Flowering, pollination and genetic neighborhoods

Topic 3.2: Seed set and seed dormancy

Topic 3.3: Vegetative reproduction, growth and survival

Module IV: Interactions in the forest

Topic 4.1: Interactions within tropical forests

Topic 4.2: Epiphytes, and ant-mediated interactions

Topic 4.3: Facilitation, and interactions across multiple trophic levels

Module V: Case studies

Topic 5.1: Case studies

Case study 1: Borneo’s Danum Valley

Case Study 2: Australia’s Tropical Rain Forests

Case Study 3: Floristics of Philippine Forests

Case Study 4: The forests of New Guinea

Case Study 5: The Rain Forests of Peninsular Malaysia

Case Study 6: The Kerangas Forests of Borneo

Case Study 7: Western Ghats, India

Case Study 8: Kaziranga, India

Case Study 9: Madagascar’s Spiny Forest

Case Study 10: The Mascarene Islands 

Case Study 11: The Savannas of Southern and East Africa

Case Study 12: Kibale Forest, Uganda

Case Study 13: The Guineo-Congolian Forests

Case Study 14: The hurricane-dominated forests of the Caribbean

Case Study 15: Brazil’s Atlantic Rain Forest

Case Study 16: Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield

Case Study 17: Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Ricsa

Case Study 18: Brazil’s Caatinga

Topic 5.2: A future for tropical forests?